Did Columbus Die Thinking That He had Discovered a Route to Asia?

Most history books say that Columbus died thinking that he had discovered a route to Asia. This is not correct. Columbus was perfectly aware that he had never reached the Asian mainland. For years he was convinced that he was in the islands that Marco Polo described as being off the coast of China. While governor of Hispaniola he took some side trips, exploring, trying to find a route through the pesky chain of islands. After he was relieved as governor he convinced King Ferdinand to send him on a new voyage of exploration, again trying to find a route through the islands.

Columbus came close to finding a passage. He spent Christmas, 1502 in the mouth of what would become the Panama Canal. If he had only stuck around another 400 years...

Later he realized that this was a larger land mass than simple islands. His new theory was that he had found the site of the original Garden of Eden.

Amerigo Vespucci suggested to a European map maker that this land mass was big enough to qualify as a new continent. Because of this, the first map to show the new large land mass named it America - a latinized version of Amerigo. After it was realized that the islands to the north were yet another continent-sized mass, America was renamed South America and the new one named North America.